Deep Water

TV Guide Ken Fox

The real emotional impact of the film lies in the candid interviews with Crowhurst's wife, Clare, and his son, Simon, both of whom are clearly still haunted by Crowhurst and his fateful voyage.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

One of this year's better studies of the human soul.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Deep Water is a movie that will connect to anyone whose private fantasies and creative plots have landed them in hot water.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

This was a story that made front pages in its day but has been largely lost to history, and now is brought bracingly and compellingly back to life.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A spooky, moving documentary.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

A compelling, well-researched, beautifully assembled document.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Disturbing, unnerving and wire-to-wire involving, Deep Water is the story of a dream that got so wildly out of hand that it ensnared the dreamer in an intricate trap of his own devising.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

It’s hard to imagine a time when the sea bore a sense of adventure close to outer space.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The story of Donald Crowhurst is not one of remarkable courage or remarkable endurance. But it is remarkable.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Deep Water is a documentary, but it's also one part adventure film, one part Greek tragedy, and one part meditation on the role of the "hero" in modern society.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

As Crowhurst's situation grows desperate, the scope of the film expands -- from a good yarn to a haunting, complex tale of self-promotion, media madness, self-delusion and, finally, self-destruction.

Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman

An exquisitely structured drama.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A stunning documentary that not only beautifully elucidates a nearly forgotten incident but touches on crucial themes involving isolation, sanity, self-worth, impossible dreams, the nature of heroism and limits of human endurance.

The New York Times Rachel Saltz

Again and again you want to shout at the screen: “Turn back. All will be forgiven.” This tale of risk, though, ends not with man conquering nature but in calamitous failure.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This fine documentary mixes archival footage, interviews with the sailor's family and sponsors, and - most amazingly - excerpts from the film and audiotape diary kept by Crowhurst.

Chicago Tribune Michael Esposito

It's like watching a slow multi-car pileup on an icy road: Everyone can see what's about to happen, but nobody can stop it.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The stories of the other competitors are just as fascinating, particularly that of Bernard Moitessier who, after nearly a year at sea, could not bear to return to England, and turned sail for Tahiti.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson

Even though the subject of this British documentary is a traveller who got lost in a more terrestrial sort of void, the spirit of the stranded astronaut haunts Deep Water.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie leaves us with greater things to contemplate than a mere tragedy of errors.

Variety Deborah Young

As it explores the limits of human endurance, the pic should suck even landlubbers into a whirlpool of gripping adventure, overblown ambitions and sheer human folly.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

It is the point -- and the power -- of Deep Water that the vast, unknowable fathoms of the sea are rivaled only by those of the human psyche.

Boston Globe Mark Feeney

Deep Water, which had seemed like a sort of Conrad novel, takes on the aspect of Dickens at his darkest.

Empire Anna Smith

A sad story, but well told, with respect for its subject and an eye for the Shakespearian tragedy in the tale.

Village Voice Julia Wallace

Co-directors Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell have done a commendable job of making Deep Water . . . well, not boring.